In 2013, the pornography industry saw four “performers” test positive for HIV/AIDS, which led to three production moratoriums. According to experts, one of the reasons for the disease's growing prevalence in the industry may be its dirty little secret: the fact that many performers are having to engage in illegal “escorting” and prostitution to make ends meet.

Once considered a profitable industry for male and female performers, pornography is seeing its former boon turn into its bane: The Internet, which opened the floodgates of porn and helped pave the way toward its becoming mainstream, has also introduced the phenomena of pirating and other problems.

In a world of porn-on-demand “it's hard to make money in porn,” says Craig Gross, founder of XXXChurch, a non-profit based in California which aims to bring “awareness, prevention, and recovery when it comes to porn, sex addiction, and related struggles.”

"The days of doing 10 films a year and making $100,000 a year are gone,” he told LifeSiteNews. Now, he says, “You see a lot of girls who see they can make money doing strip club performances, prostitution, escorting in local areas, etc.”

Former porn star Mariah Milano recently told Salon that when she joined the porn industry, “Escorts were considered dirty, bottom of the barrel. Nobody was open to admitting they did it.” But in the last few years, she says, things have changed dramatically, with people now just assuming that performers are also doing prostitution on the side.